There are over 7.4 million college freshmen and sophomore students in the United States alone. And every year, new students enter the system, so there is a constant influx of students.
College students are known for their ‘sloppy’ lifestyle and many do not adhere to the cleanliness standards they had at home. This is due to a parent, house cleaner or other person taking care of many of their needs. One of the needs is the changing of sheets that requires the student to take everything off the bed, take off the fitted sheet and take it to the laundry to wash. It can take hours to wash and dry, bring the sheets back to the dorm and remake the bed. Or, the student can send it out which can take a week to get back, so the student needs a second set of bed sheets. Some students end up not washing their sheets all semester.
A dorm (college, high school or ever summer camp) is a hotbed for germs and dirt. Most students not only sleep in their bed, but use it for a workspace, kitchen table, drinking pub, guest lounge and guestroom for romantic encounters and a napping place. Food, dirt and bodily fluids cover the sheets, but they continue to use them without cleaning.
There are other situations and other people where changing sheets can be problematic. For example, babies often soil their sheets and those sheets need to be changed frequently. Changing such a sheet might be problematic if, for example, there isn't a second caregiver at home to hold the baby while the first caregiver changes the sheet.
Similarly, it is common for elderly and/or incontinent people to soil their sheets. In many cases, the elderly person is infirmed or otherwise unable to leave the bed easily. Additionally people recovering from surgical procedures or hospital stays can have wounds that can dirty sheets requiring the sheets to be changed.
As a result, it would be beneficial to have a bedsheet which can more easily and rapidly be replaced than presently occurs. It would be further beneficial for these sheets to be concurrently waterproof or water resistant, so as to protect the underlying mattress and any other materials laid on the mattress. By having a self-waterproof sheet, the speed to replace a sheet improves dramatically.
Similarly, the materials used for an easily replaceable and waterproof bed sheet could be used for pillowcases or blanket covers as well.
It would be beneficial to overcome the problem of excessive time and effort necessary to replace a bedsheet or comparable item, excessive time and effort to clean up possible damage, and to overcome the problem of damaged mattresses thereby shortening the mattress life and incurring unnecessary costs.